Genre Savvy/Literature: Difference between revisions

Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] characters in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:

== ''[[Discworld]]'' ==

* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Discworld]] features quite a few characters like this, thanks to the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]]. Several of the witches, especially Granny Weatherwax, have a feel for "stories", and can use them to their own ends if they have to. Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is pretty [[Genre Savvy]] when it comes to tropes of detective stories and police procedurals. Malicia from ''The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents'' is either ''too'' [[Genre Savvy]], or [[Wrong Genre Savvy|not savvy enough.]] She insists on ''always'' seeing things in terms of stories, ranging from fairy tales to [[Kid Detective]] novels like ''Tom Swift'', ''The Hardy Boys'', and ''The Famous Five'' (she even claims at one point that four kids and a dog is "the right number for an adventure"). Furthermore, she has trouble in coping with subversions and exceptions, and [[Heroic Wannabe|always makes herself out to be the main character of the "story"]]. Rincewind the Wizzard [sic], meanwhile, is very much aware of [[Finagle's Law]] and similar narrative conventions that keep his life interesting. He hates them.

* It's even the whole basis of the plot in ''[[Witches Abroad]]''. The stories want to be told, whatever the effects on their players. Lily is arranging the city of Genua along the lines of these stories. The toymaker will be a jolly, red-faced man who whistles while he works ''if he knows what's good for him''. The servant girl will marry the prince, with the help of her fairy godmother, whoever has to get hurt along the way.

* "...Exactly one in a million?"

* Perhaps the most obvious example (and subversion) of this comes from the ''[[Guards! Guards!]]'' novel, when Vimes has just confronted the hidden villain of the story. The villain, (using the title of the book) summons several mooks to take Vimes into custody. However, the mooks, despite Vimes having no weapons and just standing there, show extreme hesitation. When the villain demands an explanation, they indicate they know what happens in situations like this: the likelihood is that if they try to take Vimes into custody, he will kill them all by engaging in swashbuckling clichés such as performing somersaults or swinging off chandeliers (the villain points out, somewhat hysterically, that there ''are'' no chandeliers in the room at all). It actually takes Vimes' assurances that he will not do so and would not know how to do so if he tried before the mooks actually take him prisoner.

* Also inverted in Discworld with [[Going Postal (Discworld)|Moist Von Lipwig]], who knows very well how things are supposed to go... and plays the part of the hero, because he knows that the innate genre savviness of the public will view him as a hero if he does. As a con artist, taking advantage of what people expect to see is his major skill.

* [[Thief of Time|Rule One]].

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131006133725/http://www.llbbl.com/data/RPG-motivational/target256.html Well, ''technically'' they're only little old men in robes...]

** Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde in ''[[The Last Hero]]'' are confronted by Captain Carrot. They're about to fight him when they realise that's there's only one of him and nine of them, and that he's trying to save the world. All experienced heroes who have spent decades winning against incredible odds, they see that the fight can only go one way and back down.

** This is pure genius considering that the Horde took advantage of that very trope ''themselves'' in their first appearance in ''[[Interesting Times]]'' (though it didn't end quite the way you might think).

** And all the moreso, in that the Horde's dangerous actions were spurred on by their belief that the time of heroes has passed. It has, but only for ''their'' kind of kick-in-the-door, rob-the-temple, big-thug-with-a-sword hero. Carrot, who routinely risks his life for a city salary the Silver Horde wouldn't consider enough to tip a barmaid, represents a new '''type''' of hero: one who's simply determined to do the right thing. The Silver Horde are confronted by this generational and cultural transition -- from hero''ing'' to hero''ism'' -- and it floors them.

** Taken to its logically subversive extreme when the Silver Horde meet up with Evil Harry Dread and his minions. They spend quite some time reminiscing about how Evil Harry used to follow [[Genre Blind|The Code]] by doing things like having the standard dress code for his soldiers include helmets that fully covered his face, hiring ridiculously stupid henchmen who couldn't tell the difference between an old washerwoman and a hero dressed like an old washerwoman, and so forth. Basically how Evil Harry always did everything the [[Evil Overlord List]], something with which he is clearly [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|intimately familiar with]], says not to do -- [[Contractual Genre Blindness|on purpose]]. After complimenting Harry on the utter stupidity of his current batch of minions, they go on to complain about how the current generation of Evil Overlords go about doing everything The [[Evil Overlord List]] says to do, which just isn't right. That is, if they bother with the Evil Overlording at all and don't just go straight into bureaucracy.

*** At the same time, Evil Harry Dread is complaining about how the new heroes are refusing to live up to their end of the bargain by doing things like sabotaging the Evil Overlord's escape tunnel. Guys like Cohen always left the escape tunnel intact, [[Contractual Genre Blindness|even thought they knew the Evil Overlord would inevitably escape through one]]. The reasoning behind this is that Evil Overlords are a hero's bread and butter, so killing them all off would leave them unemployed.

** Rincewind demonstrates a ''perfect'' level of this trope in this story. At one point, he announces to Lord Vetinari that he does not wish to volunteer for the mission. He's ''going'', of course, because he's perfectly aware that that's how his life goes, but he wants it known that he doesn't ''wish to''. The other wizards present, knowing what kind of things he's gone through (for what appears to be rather more than 20 years by this point) concur with him on this point.

* The Patrician has wearily recognised the pattern of supernaturally powered fads running riot over his city (''[[Soul Music (novel)|Soul Music]]'', ''[[Moving Pictures]]'') etc., but interestingly when he says so in ''[[The Truth]]'' he's actually being [[Wrong Genre Savvy]], because the fad in that book -- newspapers -- isn't supernatural and doesn't fade away like the earlier ones.

* Cohen the Barbarian shows a moment of [[Genre Savvy]] in ''[[Interesting Times]]'': knowing that [[Evil Chancellor|Grand Viziers are always evil]], he asks Twoflower, "Do you know anything about Grand-Viziering?" Twoflower says no. He gets the job, precisely ''because'' someone who knew something about it would be ''evil''.

* And it's not just the good guys who are [[Genre Savvy]]. The old Count Magpyr in ''[[Carpe Jugulum]]'' has huge stocks of lemons, holy water, and wooden stakes; his servant Igor even added a handy anatomy chart to help vampire hunters find the heart. Windows were easily opened to the sun, and dozens of objects could be converted into an easily recognised holy symbol. Why? His role was the ''recurring'' monster, and he knew what people would do if he tried Going Too Far.

** His nephew, the new Count is just as [[Genre Savvy]], but more ambitious. As savvy as he is though, he's not quite a match for Granny Weatherwax.

== Other works ==

* In [[P. G. Wodehouse]]'s ''Hot Water'', Medway, the lady's maid, speaks of how the book she's reading has a detective in disguise as a maid, causing much consternation among characters to plan to crack a safe. {{spoiler|Actually, she's the criminal, out to crack the safe herself.}}

* In [[P. G. Wodehouse]]'s ''Jill The Reckless'', Mrs. Barker notes that having problems getting married is just like in the True Hearts Novelette series. Barker has to explain to her that even though they have enough money, [[My Beloved Smother]] will persuade Derek to give it up.

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